Steve Cotterill invites freebies to Shrewsbury Town training

Cotterill has been scouring the free transfer market for possible options to beef up his Town squad since missing out on a couple of targets ahead of last week’s transfer deadline.

The boss, who leads his side into a home clash with fellow strugglers Crewe tomorrow, made no secret that he was keen to recruit in central midfield and right-back.

Cotterill said: “We haven’t made any progress as regard signing anybody. We’ve spoken to a couple of players out there. Because we don’t quite know where they are (physically), we’ve asked if they want to come in and train.

“That’s with them at the moment, that offer was made on Wednesday.

“Then the agent wants to know how much they are going to get paid. Well first and foremost we don’t know if we’re going to sign them, let alone pay them.

“We want to know if they want to come and train. But that’ll be with a view of coming in on a wage we can afford, otherwise it’ll be simple, they won’t come and train. It’s with those lads now. One of them’s already voiced what wages he wants to earn. So train away it’s ‘well you’re not going to be coming’, because we won’t pay you what you want.

“At the moment whatever we’ll pay you is more than what you’re earning. That’s the honest bottom line.

“They can either pick their boots up and come train with a good group of lads and a good football club, or chose to stay where they are, which is not doing a lot at the moment.”

The EFL yesterday published clubs' confirmed registered squad for the new season. Twenty senior players – aged over 21 – are permitted and at least eight must be homegrown through an EFL academy.

Town's submitted squad list contained 18 senior players, leaving Cotterill room to the add to the ranks should he decide.

Cotterill confesses managers must remain ‘wary’ of free agents still without a club.

He added: “Of course. If you go into the supermarket, there’s a shelf full of them.

“What you don’t do is go in and pick up the dented bottle or tin, do you? You want all the proper ones.

“That’s always going to happen. You want the ones that are all perfect, but that doesn’t happen. For one reason or another they’re out there because they’ve turned down reduced offers at clubs, and then realisation happens. I bet they’d sign deals now, but it’s a different market now.

“This is the knock-on from Covid, people have gone ‘no we’re not paying that money now’. Or they can’t pay that money now.

“There’s only been a few clubs out there who have gone hell for leather and been able to replenish their squad, very few clubs.

“I think we’ve done well to replenish ours with what we’ve got. They’re good lads, really good lads and we’ve done well to get them and they’ll prove that over a period of time.”